I am going to provide some data, some commentary and zero judgement regarding each individual’s

experience related to the recent property tax increase.

I will start by agreeing that communication about the fact that the increase coincided with the 3-year re-
assessments was inadequate. I do not agree that this was the sole responsibility of the Mayor. We, on
the City Council could have (should have) provided a more definitive and demonstrative illustration of
how the two changes would impact our taxes. It was the responsibility of both branches and I would
say we have room for improvement.

We need to have a conversation as a community on the best ways to communicate (bulletin boards,
social media, robo calls, robo emails). I am a fan of the last 2 - but having no idea what the impact is to
doing that so I am going to look into it a bit more.

Here is some data I have captured over the past 10 days. I looked at a lot of data for the past 5 years
regarding our tax rates, assessments, etc. Here is what I found [Your individual scenarios may (will) vary
widely]:

A. Single Family vs. Multi Unit Property Assessments

% Change from Prior Aggregate Assessed

Year of Change Property Category
Year Value

2020 5.54% $ 1,471,692,266 All Residential

Properties (includes
2019 7.42% $ 1,394,394,752 single family and multi
unit properties)

2020 3.34% $ 1,073,994,100

Single Family Properties
2019 7.61% $ 1,039,287,500

2020 11.99% $ 397,698,166

Multi Unit Properties
2019 6.86% $ 355,107,252

• Overall, aggregate property values rose 5.54% YOY from 2019.

• You can see under the Single Family Properties, the total valuation rose fairly nominally from
2019 - 3.34%

• Multi unit properties, however rose by 12% and are likely (certainly) to be feeling more of an
increase than single family residential properties.

• Adjustments were made according to State Law and based on approved methodologies,
utilizing sales (2018), cost and income approaches to value.
 B. Average Single Family Assessment Changes

Year of Change % Change from Prior Year Average Assessed Value

2020 3.31% $ 265,184

2019 7.23% $ 256,678

• I think that using “average” as a bench mark is dangerous. The average of 3+75+1 is 26 which
is not at all reflective of the 3 numbers. Using Median as the benchmark may have been a bit
more accurate. The Massachusetts Division of Local Services (where I got all of my data) uses
“average”.

C. Average Single Family Impact of Increased Tax v. Assessment

2020 w/
2020 w/increase Increase Increase
valuation
valuation but not from from Total
2019 increase &
including impact Valuation Valuation & Increase
impact from
from school Alone School
School

Valuation $ 256,678 $ 265,184 $ 8,506 $ 265,184 $ 8,506 $ 8,506

Tax Bill $ 3,968 $ 4,036 $ 68 $ 4,710 $ 674 $ 742

Tax Rate 15.46 15.22 17.76

• For an AVERAGE single family home, taxes would have increased $68 with the increased
valuation and no school. However, with the addition of the debt exclusion, taxes increased by
$742. Of that, $674 can be attributed to the new school.

For me, my taxes would have gone up $3 in 2020 without the impact from the school. Adding in the
impact from the school and my taxes are up over $1000 more in 2020. I don’t love it but I planned for
about $950 so I wasn’t too far off.

I am providing this information to acknowledge that this is a tough pill to swallow. For many of you,
“average” does not work. Your property values may have taken a real hit this year. Far more than the
average property. Multi unit properties likely also saw a higher than expected assessment.

We all know why this is happening - People want to live here. Our relatively small housing inventory
makes prices go up. Low supply, but high demand. There are any number of philosophical arguments
about whether the desirability of Easthampton is a good thing or a bad thing. And I’m not even going to
touch the new school topic. I will leave that for another day.

For now, please use this information if you find it helpful. Ignore it if not. I’m a bit of a spreadsheet nerd,
so diving into this data was sort of “fun” for me. I am providing it in good faith as a City Councilor and as
a fellow resident who agrees this is hard and that communication could have been much better. Please
let me know if you have any questions and I would be happy to respond or point you in the right
direction to get your answers.

Thanks for reading, Peg.